Daintree R

ainforest, Am

azon Rainforest

Springboard 5

Rainforests are some of the most amazing places on Earth. This information report examines the bizarre and wonderful animals and plants that live in these hot, wet places. It compares and contrasts two of the world’s most fascinating rainforests – the Daintree and the Amazon.

Other Information Reports (Compare/Contrast) in Springboard 5:

Simpson Desert, Mojave Desert Murray River, Mississippi River

Written by Tracey Michele

Daintree Rainforest, Amazon

Rainforest

Daintree Rainforest, Amazon Rainforest

Written by Tracey Michele Cover images of a North American temperate rainforest (left), Cola de Caballo Waterfall in Nuevo Leon (right), lorikeets ( top middle), crocodile (bottom right) and a strawberry poison dart frog (bottom middle)Photography by Corbis/Tranz (pp6–7, p9, p16, pp20–23, p25, p26 bottom, p27 bottom, pp28–29); Getty Images (Gail Shumway p8, Dorling Kindersley p11, Will & Deni McIntyre p18); Photolibrary (p15); Courtesy Daniel Yoshio Spronk (p19); Digital Vision (p1, p24, p27 top); Photodisc (cover bottom middle & bottom right, p5, p30); Corbis (cover left & top middle, p17, p26 top); Stockbyte (cover right)

© 2007 Macmillan Education Australia Pty Ltd

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.

While every care has been taken to trace and acknowledge copyright, the publishers tender their apologies for any accidental infringement where copyright has proved untraceable.

Published byMacmillan Education Australia Pty LtdLevel 1, 15–19 Claremont Street, South Yarra, Victoria 3141www.macmillan.com.au

Edited by Ruth Adeane-Nancarrow/Gordon CouttsDesigned by Kuljit KaurPrinted in Hong Kong 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

ISBN: 978-1-4202-6181-3

Introduction .......................................4

The Daintree

and Amazon Rainforests ............12

Rainforest History ........................... 14

Climate ............................................ 17

Plants ............................................... 18

Animals ...........................................24

Threats to the Rainforests ...............29

Glossary ........................................... 31

Index ................................................32

Contents

Daintree Rainforest, Amazon

Rainforest

For teachers'

inspection ONLY

� �

Introduction

Forests that have a lot of rainfall are called rainforests. They are very important to the world for a number of reasons.

Thousands of kinds of plants and animals live in rainforests. In fact, rainforests contain two-thirds of the world’s plant and animal species. A lot of these plants and animals are rare or nearly extinct.

Scientists use the plants found in rainforests to make medicine. A quarter of all the medicines that people use have plants from rainforests in them.

Rainforests can help stop the effects of pollution on the world. Plant life helps remove a gas called carbon dioxide from the air. Too much carbon dioxide in the air is one of the main causes of global warming. This means that saving the rainforests can help slow global warming. Plants also give out oxygen into the air. Animals and people need to breathe oxygen to live.

This book will take a close look at two tropical rainforests, the Daintree and the Amazon. But first, read on for some rainforest facts.

Rainforests are full of bizarre, colourful animals such as this toucan.

For teachers'

inspection ONLY

� �

Tropical rainforests are located in three main parts of the world – • South and Central America – including the Amazon• Africa – including the Zaire basin, western Africa,

and eastern Madagascar• South-East Asia – including the western coast of India,

Indonesia, Malaysia, New Guinea, and Northern Queensland, AustraliaAll of these places are near an invisible line that goes

round the middle of Earth. This line, the equator, divides Earth into two sections, the northern and southern hemispheres. The equator is the place on Earth nearest the sun, because of the way the planet spins round. Earth spins round on its two poles, at the north and south of the planet. The equator is halfway between these poles, meaning it is always closest to the sun. This makes tropical rainforests hot throughout the entire year. They lie between two invisible lines known as the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn.

PACIFICOCEAN

PACIFICOCEAN

INDIANOCEAN

ATLANTICOCEAN

SOUTHAMERICA

NORTHAMERICA

AFRICA

AUSTRALIA

ANTARCTICA

EUROPEA S I A

Key

Tropical rainforest

Tropical Rainforests around the World

A tropical rainforest is teeming with life.

For teachers'

inspection ONLY

� �

The temperature in a tropical rainforest does not change much through the year. Also, there is not much change in heat between day and night.

Every day of the year has about 12 hours of daylight. Other places on Earth have longer or shorter days than the Tropics. The length of the days in other places depends on the season. Tropical rainforests have just two seasons, the wet and the dry. However, the short dry season in a rainforest still has rain. As the name suggests, rain plays a massive part in the life of a rainforest. Some rainforests can get more than 250 cm of rain in a year. It usually rains each day, in heavy downpours that can last a couple of hours.

The amount of moisture in the air of a rainforest is also very high. The amount of moisture in air is humidity. People measure it by percentage. A high percentage means high humidity. When there is a high humidity level, the air feels sticky on your skin. In a rainforest, this level does not drop below 80 percent.

Other things that all rainforests have are a lot of rivers and streams. Most rainforests have big rivers with smaller streams runninginto them. These smaller waterways are called tributaries.

Rivers and their tributaries carve winding paths through even the densest rainforests.

A red-eyed tree frog in a rainforest downpour

For teachers'

inspection ONLY